Medal of the day: Switzerland’s Riccardo Rancan claims the first medal of the Games
The heat of the competition in orienteering’s middle distance events was blistering, as was the temperature itself at the Eastern New Area Orienteering Venue.
But that didn’t put a damper on the enthusiasm surrounding the first gold medal of The World Games 2025, which went to Switzerland’s Riccardo Rancan.
“I was very surprised to win the race,” the Swiss athlete told Xinhua, admitting he feels more at home in the shorter distance sprint event. “It’s really cool and a big honour to win the first gold of the Games.”
Rancan claimed the top spot with a time of 45 minutes and 22 seconds, completing the challenging course more than two minutes faster than his nearest rival: Italy’s Francesco Mariani.
He’ll have little time to celebrate his achievement, however, with the individual sprints and mixed team relay set to take place on 10 and 11 August, respectively.
“It’s a rest day tomorrow and I want to see the pandas,” added the victorious way finder. “I don’t have too much time to visit around, but I think we already had a good feeling during the Opening Ceremony.”
There were more “good feelings” for the Swiss orienteering team on Friday, with Simona Aebersold taking top honours in the women’s middle distance event.
“Orienteering is a small sport compared to the communities like athletics, but many Swiss people know it because we do it a lot in the schools,” explained men’s gold medallist Rancan.
Two more footnotes in the history of orienteering at The World Games were achieved by Slovakia’s Tereza Smelikova (silver) and Canada’s Vegard Jarvis Westergard, who became the first athletes from their nations to win medals in the sport, capping off a memorable day of competitions.